Nigeria, Israel Collaborate To Tackle Insecurity

The Nigerian government and the State of Israel have mapped out strategies to collaborate to tackle the incessant insecurity challenges facing Nigeria, especially on intelligence and sharing of information in financing and security training.

Indications to this development emerged when the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, Sharren Miriam Haskel-Harpaz met in Abuja on Monday to work out the modalities.

A statement from Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the meeting was a comprehensive and productive political dialogue that not only centred on security but other areas such as technology, innovation for border management, capacity building, culture, tourism, agriculture, consular and immigration matters.

In a related development, the Israeli Minister told a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, that the five Aljazeera journalists reportedly killed by Israeli forces on Monday in Gaza were members of Palestinian militant group- Hamas.

Hamas was blamed for the October 7, 2023 attacks on Southern Israeli where about 1,200 Israeli citizens were killed.

About 200 other Israelis were also kidnapped with some still being held hostage in Gaza.

Haskel-Harpaz said their membership of Hamas became obvious when members of the militant group paraded their flags in solidarity with the slain journalists.

She noted that Israel declared war on Hamas because of that unprovoked attack, and has since faced attacks from multiple fronts perpetrated by radical Islamic terrorists that have sworn to destroy her country.

Haskel-Harpaz stressed that Israel will continue to defend its sovereignty and its citizens, vowing not to stop until all the terror infrastructure of Hamas was dismantled in Gaza.

She maintained that the reported propaganda of Hamas on social and mainstream media against Israel will not deter her country from pursuing its aims to ensure security of its citizens.